At a hearing on March 10, members of the House Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee had high praise for the FDA’s stepped-up food safety enforcement efforts during Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s tenure. Inspection efforts will undoubtedly increase even further if Congress moves forward with pending food safety legislation. Hamburg thanked the House members for their passage of food […]
Food Safety
The Atlantic Forum Tackles Food Safety
Has the FDA’s experiment with self-policing failed? This was the question posed by Marc Ambinder, Politics Editor at The Atlantic, at the Food Summit hosted by The Atlantic Monthly on March 4. Ambinder noted that until the spinach, pet food, and baby formula scares in 2006, 2007, and 2008, funding for the FDA during the […]
Grant Opportunity: Community Outreach and Assistance for Risk Management
Today’s federal register announced the availability of $2.5 million in grants for the Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program and $1.1 million for Commodity Partnerships for Small Agricultural Risk Management Education Sessions. The Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program targets limited resource, socially disadvantaged and other traditionally underserved producers with training, […]
House Ag Appropriation Hearings kick off with questions for Vilsack
Yesterday’s hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture kicked off the annual ag appropriations cycle with a round of questions for Secretary Vilsack on the USDA’s budget proposals for 2011. Members covered a wide swath of issues, and specifically addressed a number of programs of interest to NSAC members, including the Biomass Crop Assistance […]
Update on Food Safety: Wins and Future Directions in the Senate
At the end of January, we sent out an action alert supporting Senator Stabenow’s Growing Safe Food Act (S. 2758) which would provide scale-appropriate training and technical assistance on food safety for small and mid-sized producers and small processors and wholesalers. In it, we outlined the deficiencies in the pending Food Safety Modernization Act (S. […]
NSAC’s 2010 Policy Priorities
Each year, the NSAC membership engages in a set of discussions within NSAC’s four policy issue committees and then at our annual face-to-face meeting in January about the coming year’s policy priorities. The NSAC Policy Council, made up of formally represented members, makes the final decision about the slate of issues the coalition will together […]
Farmer Food Safety Training Bill Gets Consumer Endorsement
Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Growing Safe Food Act received another boost this week when eight national consumer and public health organizations endorsed the bill and its inclusion as an amendment to the pending Senate food safety bill (S. 510) when it comes to the floor of the Senate in the near future. The bill already has […]
The Incredible Shrinking Local Market
By Annette Higby The Growing Safe Food Act would support small local growers by providing training and technical assistance on food safety standards. Call your senator today and suggest that he or she co-sponsors the bill. While we all cheer this Administration’s emerging emphasis on local and regional food production, let’s not forget that the […]
Dr. Elisabeth Hagen to be appointed Food Safety Under Secretary: on the to-do list, meat label claims
By Ferd Hoefner, NSAC It has taken more than a year, but USDA finally has a proposed presidential appointment to the position of Under Secretary for Food Safety (see USDA press release below). After all that time, with many prominent names from the outside floated over the last 12 months, the Administration has settled on […]
Updated Farm Bill Programs and Grants Page
By Jess Daniel, NSAC Introducing… an updated “quick-guide” to federal programs and grants for farmers, ranchers, food entrepreneurs, and the researchers, educators and community groups who serve them. This chart is a one-stop shop for links to the relevant USDA program websites (where they exist), brief descriptions of programs, and important dates and deadlines. Check […]
Food safety bills reach too far, cost too much
In an editorial in today’s Capital Times, Margaret Krome, Policy Director at NSAC member group, the Michael Fields Agriculture Institute, gives her perspective on the two upcoming food safety bills making their way through Congress: “Food safety is a serious concern, and action is needed to protect the nation’s food safety supply. Private food safety […]
Farm Foundation on Food Safety
Written by Mark Hertel, NSAC Policy Intern On Tuesday, April 7, the Farm Foundation held a forum at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on “The Future of Food Safety Regulation.” Jim Hodges, the American Meat Institute’s Executive Vice President for Food Safety and Inspection Services, argued that the food safety system for meat […]